When We Were Young: Street and Club Photographs by Derek Ridgers

Written by Val Williams, and published by Photoworks in 2005, When We Were Young explored the emergence of new style cultures in London in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

London-based photographer Derek Ridgers became interested in the new style subcultures, which emerged in London from the late 1970s. He photographed in Chelsea and in the clubs of central London. New well known for his photographs of ‘Blitz Kids’ (or ‘New Romantics’) and punk fashion, many of his subjects are now key figures of the fashion and music industries.

The young people Ridgers photographed were highly inventive, fascinated by costume, and designing and crafting their individualistic assemblages of clothes and accessories. They were also performers, members of an informal fashion and style tribe, who posed instinctively for Ridgers.

When We Were Young: Street and Club Photographs by Derek Ridgers

Written by Val Williams, and published by Photoworks in 2005, When We Were Young explored the emergence of new style cultures in London in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

London-based photographer Derek Ridgers became interested in the new style subcultures, which emerged in London from the late 1970s. He photographed in Chelsea and in the clubs of central London. New well known for his photographs of ‘Blitz Kids’ (or ‘New Romantics’) and punk fashion, many of his subjects are now key figures of the fashion and music industries.

The young people Ridgers photographed were highly inventive, fascinated by costume, and designing and crafting their individualistic assemblages of clothes and accessories. They were also performers, members of an informal fashion and style tribe, who posed instinctively for Ridgers.